Text message have surpassed voice calls as the UK's most popular form of communication. Photograph: Sebastian Pfuetze/Getty Images

It's good to talk, but it's even better to text. Whereas once we kept in touch with loved ones with a phone call, new research suggests we are now more likely to contact friends and family via a text message or email.

After a decade and a half of uninterrupted growth, the amount of time we spent talking on our mobile phones went into reverse last year for the first time since they became ubiquitous in the late 1990s.

Britons spent 5% less time on the phone in 2011 than the previous year, but texting showed no sign of losing its appeal as we sent an average of 50 messages a week. That is double the figure from four years ago, making texting the most popular form of daily communication.

The mobile revolution has continued apace, with just under four in 10 adults now owning a smartphone and 11% a tablet device, such as Apple's iPad, a proportion that leapt up from just 2% in 2010. Kindles and other e-readers are owned by one in ten UK adults.

The report by media regulator Ofcom, published on Wednesday also highlighted viewers' fondness for watching TV and surfing the web at the same time. It remains to be seen whether the buzzword it has come up with to capture the phenomenon – "turfing" – catches on.

As for texting, more than half (58%) of UK adults tap out messages at least once a day to communicate with family and friends, rising to 90% of 16 to 24-year-olds. The total number of texts sent in the UK in 2011 topped 150 billion.

Meanwhile, the volume of calls from landlines fell 10% in 2011 and – as Ofcom highlighted – the amount of mobile phone calls also went into reverse. The 1% fall in call volumes suggests that the long boom in mobile conversation is over.

Ofcom's director of research, James Thickett, attributed the decline to the increased popularity of smartphones, which allowed people to communicate using social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, instant messaging and email.

He said digital and mobile technology had fundamentally changed the way we socialised with each other, offering "newer forms of communications which don't require us to talk to each other".

"We are all familiar with the sight of people looking down, brows furrowed, tapping on a plastic screen," he added. "What we are seeing is different ways of keeping in touch. Smartphones and tablets have substituted for making voice calls. It's about convenience."

Smartphones, now owned by 39% of UK adults – up from 27% a year ago – are being used for the sort of day-to-day activities that used to be done on a PC or laptop, including sending emails, watching videos, and browsing the web.

Consumers are also using their smartphones to help them pick up a bargain when they go shopping – so-called "robo-shopping" – by comparing prices and reading reviews online.

E-readers, such as Amazon's Kindle, have also proved popular, with 41% of owners claiming to have read more since buying a device (but consumed fewer printed books, newspapers and magazines).

British homes now have an average of three internet-enabled devices, with 15% owning six or more, including the new generation of "smart" TVs, according to Ofcom's Communications Market Report 2012.

The "small screen" is also getting bigger, with more than a third of TVs sold in the UK in the first quarter of 2012 boasting screens of 33 inches or more.

Ofcom's 409-page report said mobile phone calls, at an average cost of 8.5p per minute, were now only slightly more expensive than calls from a landline (8.3p), and for the first time the majority of all phone calls (52%) were made from a mobile.

But for the over-65s phoning people on a landline still remained the most popular way of getting in touch, ahead of either calling on a mobile or texting.

The report revealed UK adults watched an average of four hours of TV a day in 2011, similar to the previous year but up from 3.7 hours in 2004. Radio listening averaged 22.5 hours a week, up 24 minutes on 2010, but the long-term trend among 16 to 24-year-olds was down, by one-fifth since 2001.

Eight out of 10 people had access to the internet in the first quarter of this year, said Ofcom, with the biggest growth area among 65 to 74-year-olds. The report also found that British adults spent 3.3 hours a month social networking on a PC or laptop in 2011, up from 3.1 hours in 2010.

Overall, 68% of adults said they used text-based methods – including text messages, emails, and social networking sites – to contact friends and family on a daily basis, ahead of 63% for voice-based services, such as landlines and mobile phones.

But despite the popularity of text-based services, the vast majority (83%) of adults of all ages said they preferred to communicate face to face.